Base station antennas used in wireless telecommunication systems have the capability to transmit and receive electromagnetic signals. Received signals are processed by a receiver at the base station and fed into a communications network. Transmitted signals are transmitted at different frequencies than the received signals.
Due to the increasing number of base station antennas, manufacturers are attempting to minimize the size of each antenna and reduce manufacturing costs. Moreover, the visual impact of base station antenna towers on communities has become a societal concern. Thus, it is desirable to reduce the size of these towers and thereby lessen the visual impact of the towers on the community. The size of the towers can be reduced by using smaller base station antennas.
There is also a need for an antenna with wide impedance bandwidth which displays a stable far-field pattern across that bandwidth. There is also a need for increasing the bandwidth of existing single-polarization antennas so they can operate in the cellular, Global System for Mobile (GSM), Personal Communication System (PCS), Personal Communication Network (PCN), and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) frequency bands.
The present invention addresses the problems associated with prior antennas by providing a novel folded dipole antenna including a conductor forming one or more integral radiating sections. This design exhibits wide impedance bandwidth, is inexpensive to manufacture, and can be incorporated into existing single-polarization antenna designs.